NEW DELHI: New telecom entrant Reliance Jio Infocomm Friday said that the rivalry is not between incumbents such as Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone India but to compete with the fast emerging OTT (over-the-top) players, is a new challenge.

“Now, for service providers, there is a big challenge. I don’t believe that competition is with Bharti, Idea, Vodafone and Reliance Jio but the competition we have as a service providers fraternity, is with the emerging OTT players which are very fast and efficient from a product innovation standpoint,” President - network, global strategy and service development at Reliance Jio Infocomm Mathew Oommen said.

Operational efficiency, according to him, is important for service providers to consider for success from the security, automation and orchestration perspective.

Messaging app WhatsApp’s userbase in India touched around 160 million where 3G/4G user base stood at 217 million in 2016 that demonstrates popularity of OTT-based messaging services, according to a research firm.

OTT services resulted in a mobile market revenue loss of more than $20 billion in 2016 globally, according to data shared by Analysys Mason.

Globally, messages sent over OTT platforms touched 11641 billion in 2015 overtaking SMS traffic which stood at 8470 billion in the same period.

“Consumers are driving new operational model and demand enhanced services. On top of that, the type of devices and apps and services consumers use put tremendous pressure and strain whether it is a core or access network or service platform,” Jio’s top executive said.

Oommen said that it is extremely important for telcos to scale up business model.

“There are perspectives and perceptions in business models. How low can you go, and in my opinion it can be as low as zero because we know we can compete with OTT players,” he said.

Mumbai-based Jio’s executive also said that he was in agreement with the idea of collaboration between service opertors.

“We have 4G-LTE and why don’t we transform to new technology before opening a door to another operator. That’s inefficiency,” he said.

He said that the amount of utility can be taken into account while migrating to a more advanced technology which according to him, provides opportunity.

The executive said that operators should adopt a right path to deliver and win the market.

“To win, we need to do end-to-end ecosystem. Our chairman is also a chief product officer, and we have a chief execution officer,” Oommen said, adding that providing best consumer experience to every individual and industry is company’s vision for India 2.0.

He said that collaboration between operators, a robust cyber security, Digital India and Skill India would bring a new opportunity for digital movement for all.

5G, according to him, is a paradigm shift, and added that it is not just another G (generation) but a framework of another capability, and about cloudification and new spectrum bands.

Oommen also supported the industry demand that more fibre infrastructure is needed for towers for mobile backhaul and to connect to enterprises and which according to him is an important area that can bring a paradigm shift.

Jio’s Rs 2,399 annual plan offers 2GB per day data that costs effectively Rs 200 per month. It also offers unlimited voice and SMS. Airtel and Vodafone Idea’s Rs 2398 and Rs 2399 annual plans, on the other hand, offer 1.5GB per day data along with unlimited voice and SMS